If It's Too Loud...

I've always loved Evan Dando's single true solo album Baby I'm Bored. (I'm not counting Live at the Brattle Theater since it's more of a live album, although it might be the best thing Dando has ever released.) I don't really remember it being considered a rousing success, especially since he went back to recording under the name The Lemonheads since then. But, it's beloved by enough people to warrant a two disc vinyl reissue for Record Store Day, with the second disc being filled with unreleased tracks and b-sides. Right now you can hear two songs from the reissue: An alternate version of "Shots is Fired" that features Liv Tyler on vocals and another alternate version, this time of "Rancho Santa Fe." Neither one is drastically different from the album versions. "Shots is Fired" is a bit more raw, and features a clanging guitar that isn't in the album version, and obviously Liv Tyler. "Rancho Sata Fe" feels a lit...

Photo by Renee Carey The Relationship formed back in 2007 as Brian Bell's Weezer side project. (I could have sworn it was much earlier, but that was his previous side project, Space Twins.) Listening to The Relationship, it feels like Weezer is his job that pays da bills, and The Relationship is where he gets to artistically express himself. To be fair, The Relationship isn't groundbreaking. Their latest song, "Break Me Open," is a classic song in the style of The Relationship. It's a throwback to a throwback. In the mid to late 90s, there was this resurgence of bands playing music reminiscent of the groovy 60s and early 70s, and wearing vintage polyester shirts to match. That's what "Break Me Open" reminds me of. If you're looking for vintage Weezer (or whatever it is they do now), you're not going to find it here. This is pure southern California groove. Plus, it lets Brian Bell let loose on a guitar, and that's always welcome. Yo...

For someone who spent pretty much all of his high school years listening to rap almost exclusively, I listen to a shockingly small amount now. For a couple of years now, I've been trying to figure out why I like Michael Christmas so much. With his new single, "Not the Only One," I think I might have figured it out. Michael Christmas reminds me of this era and subgenre of hip hop I loved in my teens. A good percentage of rap, especially mainstream rap, is a version of bragging. Rappers have the most money, get the most (and the most beautiful) women, have the best cars, are the coolest, have the biggest houses, etc. For a brief period in the early 90s, there was this little cluster of hip hop that were the opposite of that. People like Del tha Funkee Homosapien and The Pharcyde rapped about life and not always being the greatest. The Pharcyde in particular had some of the greatest songs about not getting the girl ever recorded. This is why I love Michael Christmas so...

Photo via Facebook As any regular reader of If It's Too Loud would know, we love cover songs here. This was one of those sneaky covers that I didn't recognize until about halfway through. Mark Lavengood also plays with Lindsay Lou & The Flatbellies, but has a solo album coming out next month. I tend to like Springsteen covers more than I tend to like Springsteen (although my 40 year odyssey of appreciating The Boss has me actually kinda getting into him in the past year), and I have a huge love of folk and bluegrass covers of his songs, which makes sense since I like Bruce the Folk Singer more than Bruce the Rock God. Lavengood's cover of "Hungry Heart" is a great bluegrass version of the Springsteen classic. It's as faithful a cover as a genre switch can be, and exists in both worlds of traditional bluegrass and more modern nu-grass. If I'm being completely honest, I loved the instrumentation at first, but almost balked at Lavengood's voice. I...

Photo by Shervin Lainez We were pretty into Big Thief's debut album Masterpiece last year, and assumed we'd be waiting a while for a follow up. Maybe a song or two here or there, but certainly not a full album. We would be wrong. Capacity , Big Thief's sophomore album, will be out on June 9. Right now we can listen to the first song from that album, "Mythological Beauty." "Mythological Beauty" is a lot more tame and quiet than most of Masterpiece  was. A lot of the songs on their previous album had a noisier 90s indie rock sound to them. "Mythological Beauty" goes more on the quiet side. Like, really quiet. It's definitely not folk (which is odd since I predicted that they'd play the Newport Folk Festival last year, and somehow going more quiet makes them sound less folk), but instead has that feel of late 90s ballads by The Smashing Pumpkins. It's an interesting switch that has me really intrigued for their upcoming album. ...

Although "Bait the Sun" sounds like pure southern California, Doug Tuttle is currently residing in Somerville, MA. The former frontman of MMOSS is set to release his third solo album next month. Tuttle played all the instruments on Peace Potato  and recorded it in his bedroom.  A lot of people are negative towards this digital age of recordings, and while I love the 90s 4-track home recording era, you could never have anything as lush as "Bait the Sun" 25 years ago. It's pure pop, although leaning more towards modern folk than dance music. It's just dreamy and a wee bit trippy, with horns throughout. There are traces of MMOSS's psychedelia, but only in that "Bait the Sun" has a 60s feel to it. Like all good psychedelic pop, the song is shocking in how layered it is. On first listen, it's just this simple, feel good pop song, but after a few listens you start noticing all these brilliant little details inside of it. You can listen to ...

Photo via The New Year The New Year, aka the band I'm most angry at myself for not being obsessed with earlier, have released a video for "Myths." "Myths" is quietly epic. It has an almost minimalist instrumentation throughout, with instruments barely interacting, as if they were each taking their own turns. It just slowly and slowly builds, to the point that you don't even realize that it has built. The whole composition has its own quiet intensity. The guitars each have such unique sounds and play against each other brilliantly. And then it all builds to this crescendo in minute four until the vocals finally kick in and the instruments all but stop. It's the type of song that you simply need to listen to. Not as background music at work or while you're at the gym trying not to watch one of the dozens of TVs in front of you. Really listen and pay attention to it. You'll thank me. You can watch the video for "Myths" below. The New...

Yes, I listened to 20 new releases over the course of the weekend. No, it's not going to be possible for me to do a detailed post for all of them, so we're gonna do some quick hits: Great Albums Worth Your Time This Week : * Tei Shi - Crawl Space : Probably my favorite of the week. Complex and compelling. * Goldfrapp - Silver Eye : A great electronic record this week from a group with a great track record. * British Sea Power - Let the Dancers Inherit the Party : Solid return to form for the British rock act. * Aimee Mann - Mental Illness : Her best release in well over a decade. * Lydia Ainsworth - Darling of the Afterglow : Gorgeous singer-songwriter music, deserves your attention. * Saltland - A Common Truth Solid Listens in a Busy Week : * Erin McKeown - Mirrors Break Back * Dave Davies and Russ Davies - Open Road * Sono Oto - Inheritance * Richard Edwards - Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset * Whereswilder - Hotshot * Dead Leaf Echo - Strawberry Skin * The Mave...

Photo via Facebook While most artists seem to be content with just releasing a single anti-Trump song, Juliana Hatfield has an entire album inspired by Trump coming out at the end of the month. "Short-Fingered Man" leans less towards politics and is more of a personal (uh... VERY personal) attack on the man himself, with a chorus that includes the line "Short-fingered man, can't get her off." The song itself is pure vintage Hatfield, bridging the gap between her 90s buzz bin fare and her more recent singer-songwriter style.  You can watch the video for "Short-Fingered Man" below. It's all but guaranteed to give you all sorts of 120 Minutes  warm and fuzzies in its bare bones style. Pussycat  will be out on April 28 via American Laundromat Records. For more on Juliana Hatfield, check out her website and Twitter .

Photo by Joel Faurote For their upcoming album, Claw Machine Wizard , Left Lane Cruiser are back to their original incarnation as a duo. (They had expanded to a three piece for their last album, Dirty Spliff Blues .) This return also brings with it a new sound. Left Lane Cruiser have always had a blues/classic rock duo sound, in lines with other duos in the same genre such as The Black Keys and The White Stripes, although Left Lane Cruiser dabbled a bit more in classic rock than their peers. The title track, "Claw Machine Wizard," shows off their soul influence. Guitarist and singer Freddy J Evans IV has said that they "... kinda refer to [ Claw Machine Wizard ] as our soul record." The band has been listening to a lot of James Brown, Funkadelic, and Charles Bradley on the road, and it shows. Although, it's not all soul. At around the 2:20 mark, the band launches into a furious, loud dirty blues explosion to close out the last minute of the song in a loud,...

Photo by Abraham Rowe It feels like it's been forever since the last album from The Secret Sisters. Not too many musicians start off the way Laura and Lydia did. In 2009 they showed up at an audition in Nashville. They had never performed together in public, and three months later they were signed to a major label. They opened for Levon Helm and Ray LaMontagne on their first ever tour. Then, in 2015, they were left without a label and were dealing with a lawsuit and potential bankruptcy. That led them to crowdsource their third album, and luckily for them, Brandi Carlile asked to produce. "Tennessee River Runs Low" is the first single from that album. Without a major label, The Secret Sisters are finally allowed to develop their own sound. Their first album was pure classic country (and was mostly filled with classic country covers), their second was more of the same with just enough growth, and "Tennessee River Runs Low" moves in a great new direction. Do...

Hailing from Montreal, She-Devils bring this odd and unique sound and feel to their music. Inspired as much by film and animation as they are other music, they bring a visual feel to their sound. Their latest single, "The World Laughs," mixes the world of groovy 60s Hawaiian beach movies with early new wave. They use vintage, early electronic gear to achieve this sound. When their list of influences include Gregg Araki, John Waters, and Quentin Tarantino, their sound and look make perfect sense. While this would have fit perfectly into the lounge revival of the 90s, this doesn't feel like a 90s throwback. Instead, it takes sounds that were big in the 60s, 80s, and 90s and combines them into a brand new sound while still being classic. You can watch the video for "The World Laughs" below. For more on She-Devils, check out their website , Facebook , and Twitter . The new album from She-Devils will be available May 19 on Secretly Canadian.

Earlier this month, I declared that Bad Breeding "... might be the freshest take on heavy music that I've heard in years." With "Whip Hand," the second single off their upcoming album, that becomes even more apparent. What I didn't say while discussing "The More the Merrier" is that Bad Breeding reminded me of Refused. I didn't say that since sonically they don't remind me of Refused, but the way they mixed together punk and metal in this insanely new, loud, and noisy way reminded me of the first time I heard The Shape of Punk to Come . "Whip Hand" starts off with a snippet of what is best described as muzak, so I'm reminded even more of Refused's classic album. And then the onslaught of loud comes, in what can best be described as Lightning Bolt meets Hatebreed, which is a comparison I never thought I'd ever make. This is all packed into the most intense 3:01 song ever. You can listen to "Whip Hand" be...

Photo via Facebook Pearl Jam may have popularized the multi-band Neil Young cover with their pretty much constant cover of "Rockin' In the Free World," but they certainly don't have an exclusive over it. Screaming Females have teamed with Wild Rice to cover Neil's not quite as well known "Fuckin' Up." Recorded live at Monty Hall in Jersey City, NJ for WMFU last month, both bands (including both drummers) tear into the classic. It's a pretty faithful cover, which is helped by it being one of Young's more rocking tunes. Plus, it's a Neil Young song, so there's plenty of room for multiple Marissa Paternoster guitar solos, which are always welcome. (I counted at least four, maybe five depending on if that last one can be counted as two.) You can watch Screaming Females and Wild Rice's version of "Fuckin' Up" below. For more on Screaming Females, check out their website . For Wild Rice, check their Facebook .

Lots to get to today... Album of the Week : Artist : Desperate Journalist Album : Grow Up Quick Description : Poppy post punk. Why You Should Listen : You still have some Doc Martens in the closet and want to party. Overall Thoughts : My favorite listen of the week from a band I did not know at all prior to this release, the best way I can describe them is Bully/Wolf Alice merged with Savages to give a fairly unique post-punkish sound that still has some solid poppy elements. A lot of releases this week and few truly grabbed me the way this one did. I sent it to Ken to listen to very early on in my listen, and this might be one of those weird dark horse albums that stays in my rotation for a while. Well done. Recommendation : Best of the week. Artist : Luke Reed Album : Won't Be There Quick Description : Indie poppish singer-songwriter stuff. Why You Should Listen : You need that album to usher in the spring/summer months. Overall Thoughts : A member of Bent Sha...